Powerful winds, no power

Monday

Sep 15, 2008 at 12:01 AMDec 30, 2008 at 7:52 PM

Remnants of Hurricane Ike tore through central Ohio, its whipping winds knocking out electricity to hundreds of thousands of residents, some of whom might be without power for up to a week, an American Electric Power spokeswoman said.

Remnants of Hurricane Ike tore through central Ohio, its whipping winds knocking out electricity to hundreds of thousands of residents, some of whom might be without power for up to a week, an American Electric Power spokeswoman said last night.

Because of the massive number of outages, Franklin County school systems including Columbus, Bexley, Dublin, Gahanna-Jefferson, Grandview Heights, Hilliard, South-Western, Upper Arlington and Worthington closed schools for Monday. Groveport Madison and Westerville schools are on a two-hour delay.

Gahanna Superintendent Gregg Morris said the winds tore most of the roof off the multipurpose room of Blacklick Elementary School.

It was just one of scores of buildings damaged by ferocious winds that finally relented late last night, but not until gusts of about 75 mph barreled through Port Columbus.

"What we experienced was a hurricane-force wind gust," said Myron Padgett, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Wilmington.

That gust was born from a combination of the remnants of Hurricane Ike and a cold front.

At least three people were killed by toppled trees in southwestern Ohio, and more than 1 million homes lost power in the state.

At 12:30 a.m., nearly 400,000 homes and businesses in central Ohio were without power. AEP reported more than 325,000 customers were without power in Franklin, Delaware, Licking, Fairfield, Pickaway, Madison and Union counties. More than a quarter million were in Franklin County. That's more than the 207,000 that lost power during the December 2004 ice storm.

South Central Power reported more than 53,000 of its Ohio customers were without power, including 22,000 in central Ohio.

In addition, 3,000 of the city of Columbus' 14,000 electric customers, were without power, utilities spokesman Rick Tilton said.

By late afternoon yesterday, winds started to whip, then moan, then shriek until it was as if an enormous hair dryer on full blast was being held over the region. Tree limbs that weren't strong enough gave up and were ripped from their trunks.

Whole trees -- big ones, old ones too -- were ripped up by their roots and driven through houses, road signs tossed about like sheets of paper, gas station canopies peeled like the lid of a sardine can and power lines were sent flying like dental floss in the wind.

AEP was still assessing the damage late last night. Franklin County was the hardest hit, AEP spokeswoman Terri Flora said.

She said crews will get a better look today. But preliminary assessments indicate power could be out for a week for some.

Power-company crews were "kind of shorthanded" because some local crews had been sent to Texas to assist with the areas hit hardest by the hurricane, AEP spokesman Jeff Rennie said.

The winds were enough to ground MedFlight during the late afternoon hours. The helicopter ambulance service based at Don Scott Airport was cleared to resume flying by 8:30 p.m., near the end of the high-wind advisory. It had been out of commission for at least three hours.

At Polaris Fashion Place, the power went out about 4 p.m., a security guard said, and didn't come back on before the mall closed two hours later. The guard didn't say how anyone conducted business or selected purchases in the dark.

Other people didn't stay inside. Even as traffic lights sagged into intersections or went blank, folks were on the roads. They were on their porches, walking through their neighborhoods with babies in strollers, bracing themselves against sudden windy blasts and gawking at the damage as it happened.

In Schiller Park, where once-grand trees now laid across the road, people were walking their dogs. A Chihuahua dodged (and barely escaped) walnuts falling from a tree like raindrops.

"How often do you get to experience hurricane winds?" asked David Sabbath, who lives on Deshler Avenue and was riding his bike around the park.

Law-enforcement agencies and fire departments were overwhelmed with calls about the damage.

By 8:50 p.m., Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman was asking people to stay inside, to avoid the danger of downed power lines, branches and motorists.

"We have large branches and entire trees across roads everywhere," said Mary Carran Webster, spokeswoman for the Columbus Public Service Department, who advised people to watch for debris this morning.

The crews moved quickly. A team with a wood chipper, two chainsaws and a crane-like contraption with a pincer cleared a tree that had fallen across City Park Drive in about 20 minutes.

The howling winds also turned a blaze that firefighters had been battling all day at Kurtz Bros., 2850 Rohr Rd., in Groveport, into an inferno that sent flames high into the night sky as piles of mulch burned.

The wind sheared a large section of the J.C. Penney Logistics Center's roof next to the outlet store off of Brice Road.

The Delaware County Fair was shut down in the late afternoon, as was Via Colori, a Goodale Park festival. In Fairfield, Licking and Hocking counties, the high winds downed trees and power lines, and some of them were blocking roads, officials said. Officials in Union County northwest of Columbus and Ross County in southern Ohio reported the same problems.

Some businesses were able to shelter and distract those without power.

The Lion King performance at the Ohio Theatre went on as scheduled, and other moviegoers were in luck, too. At Easton Town Center, a security guard said the AMC Easton 30 cinemas were operating as usual at about 8:15 p.m., and most of the shopping center had power.

Dispatch reporter Mary Beth Lane contributed to this story.

jsmithrichards@dispatch.com

jfutty@dispatch.com

dgebolys@dispatch.com

Details of the outages can be viewed at www.aepohio.com/news/outages, which includes a map and a list of customers affected by county.